happening now. breaking news. multiple trump co-defendants surrender in the georgia elections subversion case as former white house chief of staff, mark meadows, is now fighting his arrest. and it's all leading up to the

very dramatic moment when the defendant in chief, donald trump turns himself in on thursday. also, trump's republican presidential rivals are gearing up to debate without him tomorrow night. we'll take a closer look at the stakes for the eight candidates who will be on stage and how trump's absence and alleged crimes may shape their strategies. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." it's a busy day of breaking news in georgia at the fulton county jail and courthouse. multiple co-defendants of donald trump surrendering or securing bond agreements. this comes amid new legal mane maneuvers. paula is outside the courthouse in atlanta for us.

you have some breaking news involving another k kk key co-defendant, rudy giuliani. >> reporter: we have learned he still does not have an attorney leensed in the state of georgia to help him with this case. the former mayor, former u.s. attorney, is facing seven figure legal debt which has made it difficult for him to find and retain people to represent him. we've also learned that bernie carrick, the former new york police commissioner and unindicted co-conspirator is working with giuliani closely to help him through this stage. the surrender part of this case. we're told he's using his contacts to help find giuliani a lawyer here in the state of georgia. he needs a lawyer to sign any potential bond agreement and that lawyer has to be licensed

in georgia but we're hearing he does not have an attorney. >> mark meadows is now making moves to try to avoid surrendering in fulton county. tell us about that. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. as you know, meadows wants to move this entire case to federal court where he hopes it will be dismissed. now there's a hearing on that move on monday and meadows' lawyers asked if he could push back this friday deadline for surrender in the state case until after a hearing on the move to federal court. the district attorney was not open to that so now meadows is now asking a federal court to intervene. we're also waiting for mug shots. they're going to be released any minute. from the two defendants that have actually survey rendered t. >> they surrendered today. paula, stand by. we're going to get back to you in a moment. i want to bring in some other

experts on the georgia case and we'll discuss that as well. eli, trump isn't paying giuliani's legal bills and he doesn't currently have an attorney in georgia because of his financial situation. rudy giuliani. what's your reaction to this? >> he's had more than enough time already to go out and get himself an attorney. this indictment was announced eight days ago. that's been plenty of time for him to go get a lawyer. if in fact he cannot afford counsel, genuinely, like anyone else, he can have a public offender. i don't say that to be glib or dismissive. public defenders are outstanding at what they do. eventually, he has to have a lawyer. he's got to pay for one and if he can't, he's got to ask the court to appoint one for him. >> what do you make fof carricks involvement?

>> very odd for someone in that position to be involved in this matter. it presents a very odd set of conflicts going on for him to be advising and helping giuliani in this situation and frankly to follow up on eli's point, it seems more like a delay tactic for giuliani. maybe he's having some money problems but the idea that the former mayor of new york cannot find a lawyer in georgia seems hard to believe. >> extraordinary, indeed. tia, does trump not paying his legal bills for his co-defendants make them more likely to testify against him? what are you learning? >> yeah, there's a lot of speculation on that that you know, there are a lot of people who may feel that trump not supporting them in this hour when they're all facing charges is a sign that perhaps their

loyalty is misguided and that might change their approach to these charges, but right now, that's just speculation. for example, we've been talking about rudy giuliani. there's been a lot of speculation that he doesn't have the money to pay for a lawyer. that trump is not helping him financially, but so far, we don't have any indication whether trump and rudy giuliani's relationship has soured to the point where giuliani would turn on trump. i think there are a lot of people who want to see former president trump held accountable who are hoping these former allies and insiders do decide to kind of work the prosecution. perhaps take a deal. and maybe there will be some who do so. again in a very similar rico case involving kind of a gang/ gang/rap conglomerate, that's what happened. a lot of the co-defendants did

take deals. it remains to be seen if that hap happens for this trump case. >> mark meadows, the white house chief of staff, he has filed this emergency order as he calls it to block his arrest and have his case moved to federal court. how likely is to this be successful? >> i'd call this one very unlikely. he has the right to ask the federal court to take his case. he put in that motion a few days ago and that's in the process of being heard. where i think he's overreaching is in asking the federal court to come in and block him from ever having to surrender by the deadline in the state court. i think that's premature and i think he's asking the federal court to go too far. he has the right to make this motion. to ask the federal court to eventually take his case but that's got to play out. that will take a few weeks to play out and i don't think he has much of a chance for this emergency motion he's about to file. >> interesting. paula, back to you. just hours after his bond agreement in which he was

ordered not to intimidate witnesses, trump slammed the fulton county d.a. once again on social media. is this a violation of the order? >> reporter: it's an open question. he's barred from threatening defendants, witnesses, co-defendants and the community generally but it doesn't specifically prohibit him from saying anything about the district attorney. and this, in some ways, is a free speech issue. he can criticize here. he's not directly threatening her but there could be ramifications and other people who see him criticizing her as a call to action. so this appears to not be a violation of his bond restrictions but we'll see if there's any escalation going forward. >> shan, who can enforce this consent bond order for trump and how are they going to decide

what crosses the line? >> it's the court that would enforce it and usually the prosecutor might bring the motion to the court saying his bond release conditions have been violated and they'd ask for a sanction. whether it's home monitoring or whether they put him in jail. how to decide it as paula was saying, may be an open question. one of the provisions that may be dangerous for trump says he can't directly or indirectly try to communicate with witnesses. one could certainly make the argument that this type of criticism, talking about the prosecutor or judge is a way of communicating to the witnesses points to make for them. i think that is dangerous. they have to bring that before the judge and ultimately, it's going to be a discretionary call for the judge whether they believe this crosses the line or not. but they certainly put forth a broad swath of prohibitions for him an given the fact that he tends to have a hard time controlling his expressions, i think he is in some jeopardy

there of running afoul. >> i think you're right. paula, john eastman said he had no regrets after being booked and released earlier today. what else did he say? >> reporter: that's right. eastman was one of two people who surrendered and went through that process today. let's take a listen to what he said. >> i'm here today to surrender to an indictment that should never have been brought. it targets attorneys for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients. something attorneys are ethically bound to provide and which was attempted here by formally challenging the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means. >> do you still think the election was stolen? >> reporter: that's going to be his defense. his lawyer has been pretty consistent publicly saying that he believes he was working as a lawyer aggressively pursuing his

client's best interest by trying to look for any evidence of election fraud. of course, he has been charged in a conspiracy to overturn the election but his remarks are very consistent with what his attorneys have said publicly about why they believe he will not be convicted. >> interesting. eli, what do you make of this argument from eastman that he was quote, ethically bound to advocate for trump as his attorney? >> wolf, i think this is a preview of the trial defense that we'll see from not only eastman, but there are eight different lawyers charged in this case. i think all or many of them are going to make some variation of this argument. they're going to argue that they had not just the right but the duty as a lawyer to zealously advocate for their clients. as a lawyer, you are allowed to make aggressive arguments, creative arguments, even bad arguments. that's not necessarily a crime. of course, the response from the prosecutor here is going to be but you crossed the line. you went beyond just being an aggressive advocate. you were in on a plot here to steal this election. that's going to be closely

contested at trial i think when you look at all the factors. it's not an easy case for prosecutors and it's not a ridiculous defense by eastman. that will be a question for the jury. >> shan, what do you think? >> i think there is a ethical duty to zealously represent your client just as eli was saying, but it's not part of zealous representation to commit a crime. and that's what it's going to come down to here. it's a question of what is he advising the client to do. you can't advise the client to commit a crime either. it's not like he was in a proceeding and these lawyers were making aggressive arguments. they're doing something outside of the court proceeding and that's what the problem is. i think ultimately, if that is made very clear to the jury, that's how the prosecution is going to win convictions. >> and tia, trump posted this rather biz truth social post in which he appears to joke about fleeing the country to avoid prosecution. let me read part of that post.

fani willis insisted on a $200,000 bond for me. i assume therefore she thought i was a flight risk. i fly far away, maybe to russia, russia, russia, share a gold dome sweet with vladimir never to be seen from or heard from again. what do you make of that post? >> well, i'm sure, well, i'll say this. i think there are attorneys who say if that was my client, i wouldn't consider that helpful to even joke or sarcastically mention you might try to flee the country to avoid facing charges. i also would say i know attorneys like the others on the panel but if they really thought trump was a flight risk, that bond probably wouldn't be $200,000. it might be much higher or nonexistent. i think the reason why he has a $200,000 bond, which is pretty manageable. particularly someone of trump's

wealth, is because they don't believe he's a flight risk because he's high profile, because he's running for president, and they're putting their faith that he's going to stick around while this plays out. >> yeah. that's important. guys, thank you very, very much. coming up, fulton county sheriff employees are getting threats just ahead of donald trump's expected surrender on thursday. i'll discuss the story with a former attorney general of georgia. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." , and this is my third time selling to carvana. you just entnter your license plate or your vin, answer a f few questions. boom, you get a rereal offer. sesell your car to carvana toda. businesses need 5g solutions today. that's why they choose t-mobile for business.

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a source tells cnn that employees in the fulton county sheriff's office and their homes have been getting threats over their role in donald trump's surrender at the fulton county jail that's scheduled for thursday. cnn's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, john miller, is joining us now. how are officials monitoring these very disturbing threats? >> well, this is something being worked on by kind of the intelligence fusion cell that the fulton county sheriff has developed with atlanta pd and the fbi. these are the same investigators who are working on the doxing and comments and exposure of

members of the grand jury who brought this indictment. if they can trace them back to a person, if the threat goes beyond what the law allows, particularly using the internet or interstate commerce to make a threat against a government official for the performance of their work, there can be arrests in that case. i know the special agent in charge in atlanta, carrie farley, is somebody who's got a real background in the counterintelligence realm and a lot of talent with her team in digging these things back and they're helping out. >> what sort of coordination, john, goes into trump's surrender on thursday? >> so that is going to be a complex and highly choreographed affair. you're going to see him arrive in the early morning at the atlanta airport. he's going to have a motorcade, a full motorcade with police escorts and intersection control that's going to wind its way through the streets to the fulton county jail.

he's going to go into a sally port where the gates will close behind him and the gates will open up in front of him and he'll be admitted to the jail with his secret service detail who will remain armed in the facility. he'll get the finckgerprints by live scan and they'll be transmitted into the system by computer. mug shots processed then come out the same way he came in. the wild card here is despite the admonishment from the judge about making statements that could be considered over the line, it appears that he is planning to do a press, a press conf conference or a press statement by the airplane before he departs from atlanta about his experience surrendering and the next time we'll see him in that area is going to be the arraignment september 5th. >> we will be watching all of this unfold. john miller, thank you very, very much. for more on the story, i'm joined by same olens, the former

attorney general of georgia. attorney, thanks so much for joining us. how concerned are you, first of all, by these heightened threats to the sheriff's office employees as well as over at their homes? in your time as georgia's attorney general, did you ever see anything like this go on? >> well, i mean, frankly, we witnessed over the last several years, more and more of these threats. the nice thing or the good thing is that the police department, the sheriff's department, and our federal partners are very familiar with it. so they have processes in place. they aggressively work on these issues on a daily basis and they're very, very professional. >> let me also get your thoughts while i have you, attorney general, on mark meadows' emergency motion on turning himself in by friday because of his request to move his case to federal court. how likely is it that he'll be able to avoid arrest? >> so i think the likelihood is

that he will not be able to avoid arrest. but i think candidly, the difference is not the friday versus monday. this simply demonstrates the number of motions, the aggressive nation of the defense counsel that will be with us throughout this prosecution. and demonstrates to all parties and of course, the court, that this will be a very highly litigated prosecution. >> rudy giuliani, meanwhile, has yet to find a lawyer in georgia. he's getting some help instead from an unindicted co-conspirator. what do you make of that? >> wolf, we have many excellent criminal defense lawyers. it's not hard to retain a lawyer to represent you. and if i were mr. giuliani, i would make sure i had one and

was at 9:01 raice street by friday noon. >> and bernie carrick is not a lawyer. trump is attacking fani willis even though he's not to make any threats. wouldn't any other defendant have much less leeway and perhaps already be under a gag order? >> so, frankly, the three-page order here is very similar to the standard order. it applies to all the defendants. not just the former president. and i think every one in this situation, whether it's the atlanta case, the d.c. case, florida case, et cetera, they don't want to be too aggressive too fast. they want to closely monitor what the former president states. if everyone feels, by that, i mean the prosecutor and the

court, feels that he's crossed the line, then of course they're going to have a timely error. >> attorney general, thank you so much for joining us. >> you're very welcome, sir. up next, how donald trump's republican rivals plan to address his absence from tomorrow night's presidential debate. we're going to tell you what we're learning as the candidates gather in milwaukee. y unlimited, and unlimited hotspot data. so, no matter what, i'm running this kitchen. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it''s your verizon. - [narrator] what if therwas a hearing aid that could keep up with you? (notification dings) this is jabra enhance select. it's a smart hearing solution that makes hearing aids more convenient and less expensive.

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republican presidential hopefuls are on the brink of an unprecedented debate that will happen without the gop front-runner, donald trump, on the eve of his fourth arrest.

jeff zellny is covering debate for us. jeff, trump won't be there tomorrow night but he'll still be a factor. what are you hearing? >> wolf, he will definitely loom large over the debate stage. he won't be there, but that does not change the fact that he has the dominant front-runner in this race. so different candidates may try di different things to a, elevate their own standing by going after him, and others are simply going to try to use the fact t that he is not there to take some of that time to introduce themselves and more importantly, their positions for voters. but certainly he's going to be central to so many things. from the questions to how some of the candidates present themselves. we caught up with former wisconsin governor, scott walker. he's one of the few people who's debated donald trump in the 2016 campaign at the first debate in cleveland. he said he's been offering advice to these candidates. >> i said the only person who

changes your opinion about donald trump is donald trump. if they waste time attacking him, they're doing just that. wasting time. but if they come out and have a breakthrough moment and have passion, credibility, a bold agenda that gets people worked up, creates a buzz coming out of the debate, then, not saying it happens, but at least it gives them a fighting chance. >> and wolf, tonight, we are also getting a sense of what the candidates will actually look like. what their order will be like on stage. not surprisingly, florida governor ron desantis will be at the center of this stage. he, of course, has the potential most opportunity here to really solidify his role as the second tier candidate, if you will. or the biggest risks perhaps because all the arrows also may be on him. also, ramaswami will be next to him. nikki haley, tim scott will be on her side. you can see the rest of the

lineup from there. eight candidates will be on the stage for the questions tomorrow night. it really is the sort of beginning line of the republican presidential campaign. this is the biggest venue on the biggest stage and many candidates are hoping for a breakthrough moment. >> meanwhile, democrats are hoping to turn this debate into an opportunity for them. tell us how. >> wolf, they are definitely paying attention to this. president biden is airing his first state specific ad on television here in wisconsin. they are trying to really assert themselves for the first time in this presidential race. essentially showing all the candidates, in their view, are extreme maga candidates. the reason is the location. wisconsin, of course, is a vital stop on the road to the white house. donald trump, of course, carried the state narrowly in 2016. joe biden won it in 2020.

so the ten electoral votes here are so important to whoever wins the white house. so yes, we are still in the primary season but the white house is already looking to next year. and this building behind me, this arena will be the site of the republican convention next summer so whoever the nominee is, will be crowned right here in milwaukee. >> wisconsin being an important state. jeff, thank you very much. stand by. we're going to get back to you in just a few moments. right now, i want to get the latest on trump's plans for tomorrow night as his opponents take the stage. elena is on the trump beat near his resort in new jersey. what more can you tell us about the former president's plans for debate night? >> reporter: well, wolf, the former president will not be there. he won't even be in the state of wisconsin. he will stay here in new jersey at his golf club just where i am now. his team, however, and many of his surrogates, will be in milwaukee at that debate.

after a last minute scramble, after fox had pulled some of their credentials, his team has found a way to get credentials and be in the spin room tomorrow night and represent the former president in his absence. but we know donald trump has already prerecorded an interview with tucker carlson. that will air tomorrow night at some point around the debate. i really think the biggest thing that is going to be overshadowing this coverage is when donald trump heads to georgia on thursday. the timing of his surrender is something that is going to be sucking up all of the oxygen or at least most of the oxygen, on the air waves. thursday's normally the day, the day after the debate, i should say, when the networks and the media is dissecting what people on the debate stage said. from what jeff said, a lot of these candidates are hoping for a breakout moment. unfortunately, a lot of that coverage is going to be overshadowed by trump. something trump's advisers actually welcome. they welcome the fact that a lot

of the attention is going to remain on donald trump despite him not being there tomorrow night. >> thank you very much. i want to bring back jeff along with cnn political commentators, kate and alice. alice, what will you be looking for in tomorrow's debate? who is most in need of a breakthrough moment? >> clearly, desantis has his name on the line here given there's such a high level of ex ex expectation but any number of the other candidates can breakthrough. we all know donald trump is the de facto head of the republican party. but he will be a factor in this debate stage for the sheer reason that his hot air will not be sucking the oxygen of the room on that debate stage and it gives more time for these candidates to make their case. i encourage them strongly to punch, pivot, and be appealing. punch back on donald trump as someone who has lost repeatedly since he has been in the white

house. pivot to your message and stay on course with your message and how you can turn this country around on the economic level. and be appealing. appeal to the voters, connect with them because voters will support someone that is likable and that's a big factor in the debate. >> certainly is. kate, trump says he will surrender himself on thursday in georgia. do you see this as a deliberate attempt to try to overshadow and count ernie momentum from the republican debate? >> well, i can't get in donald trump's head, but we know in addition to being a politician, he fancies himself a tv producer and i think he's probably trying to produce some television here. there's no question as elena was saying, the day after the debate is a big day for the people who had big nights on the stage, who had their moment where they really landed their message. you know, the day after the debate is the day when that sort of filters into the ecosystem and the campaigns have the opportunity to raise money off

of the big moment on the debate stage and they have the opportunity to go out to their supporters and reenforce their message. so for donald trump to sort of suck up all of the national me media oxygen on thursday, it's going to make it a lot harder for the folks on the stage to grab momentum on wednesday night. >> it's interesting, jeff. ron desantis says he expects others will go after him with trump not being there on the stage. what are the candidates signaling about their debate strategy? >> wolf, we have already seen some of these debate strategies already playing out on the campaign trail. that's the best place for most of the candidates to try out their lines. to test their distinctions and differences with their fellow candidates. one thing i'm looking for are the fellow or former governors on stage. nikki haley has been repeatedly doing this, calling attention to the dispute with disney, for example, and questioning how conservative that really is. at least philosophically. using the state money

essentially to go after a single business. i think the fact that she is alone on stage and at the center of the stage is you know, certainly an opportunity for him to introduce himself on his own terms but also a risk for him without question. but chris christie, he'll be near the end of the stage, but he is the only one in this group who has debated at this level before. of course, mike pence has been in vice presidential debates, which is also good experience. chris christie will try and strike a balance of going after trump. we know what his views on donald trump are. so look for him to go after governor desantis and draw some of these distinctions on conservative policy. that's one of the reasons he'll be at the center of all this, but how the governor handles this could really answer the question in the days after the debate. whether it's overshadowed by donald trump or not. how he handles this is going to determine if he's in that second place or if that second place is

now up for grabs or perhaps filled by someone else. >> alice, i'm anxious to get your thought. is it time for the republican candidates who didn't qualify for this first republican presidential debate to drop out of the race? >> look, no one should ever tell anyone who's willing to put their life on the line to run for president that they should get out of the race at this stage in the game. there's still the opportunity for them. over time as we move further along, if they don't make the next debate stage, it's going to be evident they don't have the money, the message or momentum to move forward. we know donald trump really has a strangle hold on between 35 and 40% of the republican party. that means 60% of republican voters are up for grabs and the sooner that the republican party can get down to one or two candidates and galvanize their support behind that person, the

better the chance the party has of nominating someone besides trump. >> it's interesting, kate. tomorrow's debate takes place in milwaukee, wisconsin, which is where the biden campaign is launching its first state-specific ad campaign. is this the right strategy for biden right now to try to insert himself around the gop debate? >> well, i think what they're doing is underscoring this fundamental contrast. yes, of course that's smart and doing that in wisconsin, a key battleground state, where you're reminding voters, some of whom are not going to tune into the debate, but may catch this ad and may remember we've got an election coming up next year. so starting to see those contrasts now is smart. i think it's actually quite fitting that the debate is in wisconsin, which is the home of actually one of the biggest failed promises, unfulfilled promises of the trump presidency. the fox con jobs.

for the biden campaign to take this opportunity to remind voters of that, that's smart. >> guys, thank you very much. and stay with cnn for analysis of the first republican presidential debate of the 2024 race. it all begins tomorrow at 11:00 p.m. eastern after the debate. just ahead, we'll have an exclusive report from ukraine where an elite sniper unit is fighting in the shadows for their country's survival. romisi. at farmers, we offer both quality insururance and great savings. (crowd cheers) here, take mine. (farmers mnemonic)

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now to a cnn exclusive report. an inside look at an elite ukrainian sniper unit armed with western made weapons taking out russian targets. >> they've never seen or heard fire only once. the targets just drop.

ukraine's elite sniper unit from the security services are usually invisible. like the u.s. delta force chosen for fitness and intelligence. unlike delta, fighting for their homeland's survival for nearly 18 months. they gave cnn a rare interview as they honed their sniper scopes and broadcast the damage they say they've been doing to russian front lines. it's sniper terror, he says. that's when we hit every target we spot. it demoralizes them and kills their will to do anything against us. but it's not always one sided. five weeks ago, they stumbled at night into a russian recon group. we were in the gray zone between our lines, the commander says, using a guide from another unit. but we ran into a russian assault group doing pretty much the same thing as us. moving towards our front position.

we opened fire. our guide was wounded. we suppressed them, pulled in artillery then watched them fall back with their wounded. they do not always escape. sasha knows that too well. i've lost many people, he says. the best ones leave us first. his upper lip folds in slightly from an injury where a large shell hit his chest, legs, and face last march. it was unpleasant, he says, but i had 16 operations to rebuild my bones and teeth and i got back into the fight. western help has kept them afloat, they say. this anti armor sniper rifle, a donation used so often that its depr depress sor comes loose. these men and machines working at a tempo they are probably not designed for.

they know why they're here though. my son is growing up, sasha says. he's little but he already trains, knows who the enemy is, and that is russia. hoping each single shot brings russian defeat closer. now, wolf, you saw there, that's a unit functioning sometimes deep inside russian territory. weapons you saw there used so much that' even the suppresser flew off because of the amount it's been used. one of their larger weapons used so much it's out of operation at the moment. these dedicated, elite troops doing all they can and i think they find the criticism from some they know how hard their task is and they say they're prosecuting every night as best they can. >> thank you very much, nic. stay safe. meanwhile, some of russia's key allies are meeting in south

africa for a major summit by president putin did not attend in person. instead appearing virtually alongside his counterparts. for the back story on this, lynn and jill. jill, putin passing up this opportunity to be on the global stage is likely related to the international criminal court warrant for his arrest for war crimes in ukraine. walk us through the significance of that and how his absence could impact his strong man image. >> well, wolf, it's obviously very embarrassing for the kremlin. they really wanted him to go to this meeting, summit, with the brick as they're called. brazil, russia, india, china, south africa. and the problem was that as you mentioned, the international criminal court a while ago actually issued an arrest

warrant for president putin because of alleged crimes. human rights violations concerning children, by the way, in ukraine. so south africa, which is a signatory to the icc, would be duty bound to arrest him. that could be a, you know, a diplomatic disaster for south africa. so they finally came to an agreement and the foreign minister of russia will go, but putin was there in his chair in the kremlin doing a virtual meeting. but it's certainly not what they wanted. >> certainly embarrassing, indeed. evelyn, how do you read putin's virtual appearance as he works to try to rehabilitate his image after the wagner mutiny? >> i agree with jill. it's not making him look very strong. he clearly cannot travel at will. south africa is one of i think about 132 countries that are signatories to the international criminal court so that leaves a

lot of the territory of the world that he can't go to. that does make him look weak. he's trying to compensate by talking about expanding the number of countries that might join the bricks. of course, you'd have to rename the organization because as jill explained, the letters is actually the first letter of each country and i don't know what countries he has in mind. he also talks a lot about you know, the number of the populations represented by that group as if quantity is somehow going to compensate for lack of democratic quality. >> evelyn and jill, ladies, thank you very much. coming up, the first named storm of the 2023 atlantic hurricane season is drenching part of texas right now. we're going to show you where it's headed next. plus, we're keeping a close eye on the fulton county jail as trump's co-defendants surrender, all leading up to when donald trump turns himself in on

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as southern california recovers from tropical storm hilary's record-breaking rainfall, right now tropical depression harold is pummeling south texas with heavy rain. cnn meteorologist jennifer gray is over at the cnn weather center for us. jennifer, where is this storm hitting hardest? >> it's hitting hardest across south texas right now. landfall around 10:00 a.m. central time south padre island. we have very heavy rain across south texas, flash flood warnings across portions of corpus christi. this is going to hid into portions of mexico as well as west texas as we go throughout the late evening into the overnight hours. still has winds that are about 30 miles per hour. the forecast radar is going to

push the rain to the west and produce some very heavy rainfall across a very dry texas. about 88% of texas is in drought right now. unfortunately, the bulk of the rain is missing the areas that need the rain the most, but nevertheless, this is a state that needs the rain. this was beneficial rain for texas for sure. but the first landfall for the atlantic hurricane season, so we're just getting going. >> jennifer gray, thank you very much. coming up, there's more breaking news on key trump allies indicted in georgia as some of their codefendants have begun surrendering.

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♪inspiring music♪ ♪ start your day with nature made. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. happening now, following breaking news involving two of donald trump's codefendants in georgia. rudy giuliani struggling to find a lawyer as mark meadows is seeking an emergency order to avoid arrest. also this hour, an update on threats against th